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Murrin Bridge Preschool Community Hub by CD Studio, Supercontext, GFA2, Fake Industries and University of Technology Sydney

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Murrin Bridge Preschool Community Hub by CD Studio, Supercontext, GFA2, Fake Industries and University of Technology Sydney

NOTE: Aboriginal and Readers of Torres Strait Islander should be aware that the following pages may contain images or names of deceased persons.

Wherever you are now, it is probably a long way from Murrin Bridge. You are probably somewhere along the coast of the continent and somewhere near a large city. Murrin Bridge is nowhere near either of those places; it is on the fringes of Australia’s population distribution pattern. However, for a select group of Australians, the small community and its new preschool are the centre, not the fringe.

The Murrin Bridge Preschool Community Hub – which aims to expand the capacity of the existing preschool and create a facility for other community services – has come a long way since its recent opening. It began with UTS academic Allan Teale discovering he had family ties to the Indigenous community in the Murrin Bridge area, which led to a number of personal visits. Housing was the first topic of conversation. But as often happens in these remote communities, it soon became clear how much needed to be done, and the project turned to expanding the existing preschool.

“The design team worked closely with the cultural needs of the local community to ensure the design created a safe and appropriate environment.”

—Allan Teale, UTS

A victim of its own success, Murrin Bridge Preschool outgrew the capacity of its existing building. A team of UTS academics (including Campbell Drake, Urtzi Grau, Guillermo Fernández-Abascal, Saskia Schut, Louisa King, Jack Cooper and Eduard and Deb Shapiro) conducted a series of participatory design workshops with students and the community, ultimately developing a DA-ready design. Andrew Daly of Supercontext generously agreed to assist with the documentation, tendering and construction phases.

The design emerged through a series of participatory workshops involving the community.

Added to this already large team is the complex Venn diagram of the community, the preschool organisation and the Local Aboriginal Land Council. The architects were determined not to be those people who arrive at remote places like Murrin Bridge full of energy and optimism, only to disappear as the challenges become apparent. When costs spiralled due to COVID and the remoteness of the site, when value management processes saw simple answers in removing entire buildings, when grant funding timelines ran out… the architects and the Murrin Bridge community persevered.

The Murrin Bridge was built by the government in 1949 as a “model agricultural village”1 – but was, more frankly, “an arrangement established on the basis of dispossession, oppression and exclusion.”2 On Wiradjuri land, but also home to the displaced peoples of the Barkindji and Ngiyampaa nations, it lies just north of Lake Cargelligo, between Cobar and Griffith, and is a brisk seven-hour drive west of Sydney. It has a population of around 100 people, who live in homes owned by the Local Aboriginal Land Council.

With the doors closed, the building could almost be a fire station, but when the doors are open, “it's clear that this is something very different.”

The set of three buildings that form the new community hub for preschoolers represents a simple architectural idea: take the existing building and turn it into a triangular courtyard by adding two buildings of equal length. The courtyard becomes a play space for the children, and the buildings open up onto it. A wider landscaped area is bounded by a simple palisade fence. A series of roller doors around the edges of the verandas allow the buildings to be opened and closed to this landscape, which also follows a kind of tripartite pattern: three zones form “weaving grasslands”, “edible forests” and “medicinal, ceremonial and spiritual forests”.

The “barn, but more than a barn” 3 The aesthetic of sage green corrugated steel, red window frames and agricultural roller doors make the building, when the doors are closed, resemble a fire station in the countryside. But with the doors up and children streaming in every direction, it’s clear that this is something very different. These roller doors – which allow staff to control shade, shelter, wind and the range of their pupils – give the building great flexibility and are key to its success. The preschool staff and the community have quickly understood how to tailor the building to their needs.

The expansion will nearly double the nursery school's capacity and also create space for other community services.

To build successful community buildings in remote locations, as this project has done, you have to address all the usual challenges of architecture and construction – but it seems to me that remoteness amplifies all of these threats. When the threats arise, a committed remote community will almost always overcome them, find ways to obtain materials, find a buddy to help with some roofing, build the kitchen themselves, and so on. This is the way they are used to doing things while they wait for the government to deliver on its promise to provide for our people fairly. But there is a risk in all this that the basis of a good idea can be lost. So the architect is left with the task of distilling (and explaining) the elements that are most valuable. It is often difficult to see what these essential elements are, especially when pragmatism has driven the project from the beginning. But ultimately, if you accept that the first priority is that children have a place to go to preschool – and for that to happen, preschool must exist – then this becomes the first. The shelter and security of the three buildings that enclose the play space is second. And third is the ambition to avoid windows and doors with bars or security screens – hence the roller doors on the edges of the verandas, a strategy that separates the security from the centre’s own windows and doors. But this team also had wider and broader ambitions to have a positive impact on the settlement. A partnership with TAFE NSW saw 12 Indigenous trainees complete their Certificate II in Construction as part of the build, with several being offered further employment in the construction industry following completion of the project.

After a five-year period of design, consultation and construction, the centre opened with a performance by the Marrambidya Dance Group.

Now that the preschool is open and the landscaping is in place, the children are calmer, happier, and easier to engage for preschool director Leanne Smith and her staff. Isn’t that the standard by which every preschool should be judged? When I asked Leanne to explain why she thinks the children’s behavior has changed, she said, “It’s so much cooler, because of the porches, the new trees, the landscaping. And the children are safer. So they have more freedom. They can be outside more.”

“The well-being, happiness, creativity and development of independence of our children will give them a sense of connection to our culture and preschool at Country at Murrin Bridge.”

— Leanne Smith, Preschool Director

It sounds simple, but it wasn’t. The beauty of this project is that the children have always been central, despite all the challenges to complete it.